There are many applications, ranging from consumer electronics to telecommunications and the like, in which semiconductor-based integrated circuits capable of performing various tasks are packed in close proximity in a small form factor to serve various needs. Such integrated circuits may include, for example, driver circuits, microprocessors, graphics processors, memory chips, global positioning system (GPS) chips, communications chips, laser diodes including edge-emitting lasers and vertical-cavity surface-emitting lasers (VCSELs), light-emitting diodes (LEDs), photodiodes, sensors, etc. Integrated circuits inevitably generate thermal energy, or heat, in operation and thus are heat sources during operation as well as for a period of time after power off. As the number and complexity of the functionalities performed by integrated circuits continue to increase, heat generated by integrated circuits, as heat sources, present technical challenges that need to be addressed. For one thing, performance, useful lifespan, or both, of an integrated-circuit chip may be significantly impacted if the heat generated by the integrated-circuit chip is not adequately dissipated or otherwise removed from the chip.
Metal heat sinks or radiators, based on copper or aluminum for example, have been a dominant heat sink choice for electronics and photonics applications. However, as the form factor of integrated circuits gets smaller it is impractical to build a small metal heat sink with a large surface area heat sink.